The European Union (EU) government has taken the next step in efforts to require the use of a single charging technology for most types of electronic equipment marketed or sold in the EU.
According to a press release, the EU Parliament and the EU Council have reached a provisional political agreement to amend the EU’s Radio Equipment Directive (RED) to harmonize charging technologies around the universal use of the USB-C interface. The agreement follows the terms of the amendment as originally proposed by the EU Commission in September 2021.
The provisional agreement reached by the Parliament and Council must now be formally approved by both branches of government, which is expected sometime this fall. Following publication of the final agreement in the Official Journal of the European Union, device manufacturers are then expected to be granted a transition period of 24 months, after which newly introduced electrical and electronic devices must adopt the harmonized charging technology.
The move to harmonize device charging technologies is part of the EU’s overall effort to reduce consumer inconvenience and electronic waste created by the use of different and incompatible charging technologies for electronic devices. The EU Commission estimates that disposed chargers constitute more than 11,000 metric tons of e-waste every year.
